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Presenting to the Executive Team? Here’s What to Think About — Part 1
During the pandemic, I worked with mid-level executives across a variety of industries who had to navigate a particularly difficult form of communication in a new way: presenting to the executive team via Zoom. Now that the trend is clearly toward being back in the office, at least a few days a week, those same executives have to get used to presenting in person again.
It’s surprisingly stressful. Many of these mid-level folks found that they liked having their bosses on the other end of a computer screen. In a way, the screen had a democratizing effect. Reduced to a tiny two-dimensional square, the CEO suddenly seemed less intimidating. And while presenting on Zoom certainly brought with it many challenges, everyone was in the same lockdown boat, and that had a unifying effect in many companies.
But now the managers are managing in person once again and when the CEO is also in town, that typically means tackling him or her face to face. Many of these mid-level folks report feeling newly uncomfortable, having gotten out of practice for face-to-face meetings. Following is the first of a three-part primer on how to present to the executive team in person once again. In this first part, I’ll take on the issue of reading body language. In the second, how to keep the executives’ attention. And in the…
